AC4 was a Swedish
hardcore punk
Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated to hardcore or hXc) is a punk rock music genre#subtypes, subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots ...
band from
Umeå
Umeå ( , , , locally ; ; ; ; ) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County.
Situated on the Ume River, Umeå is the largest Urban areas in Sweden, locality in Norrland and the t ...
.
Refused
Refused (also known as the Refused) is a Swedish hardcore punk band originating from Umeå and formed in 1991. Refused is composed of vocalist Dennis Lyxzén, guitarist Kristofer Steen, drummer David Sandström, and bassist Magnus Flagge. Guita ...
members
Dennis Lyxzén
Sven Olov Dennis Lyxzén (born June 19, 1972) is a Swedish singer, best known as the lead vocalist for the influential hardcore punk band Refused, as well as the bands INVSN and Fake Names. He is also a former member of bands including AC4, S ...
and
David Sandström
David Sandström (born 2 January 1975) is a Swedish musician best known as the drummer for the hardcore punk group Refused. After Refused first broke up in 1998, he and the other members worked on a project entitled TEXT and released one album. ...
had been talking about starting a new band for a long time. In the spring of 2008
Karl Backman
Karl Backman, (born 27 October 1970, Umeå) is a Swedes, Swedish artist and musician.
Music
Backman became involved in Punk rock in 1980 and started his first punk band the Boredom Brothers in 1982 when he was squatting in Umeå.
He formed ...
had written songs for the new band and they started to rehearse. Jens Nordén had played with Lyxzén in pre-Refused straight edge hardcore band
Step Forward
Step Forward was a Swedish hardcore punk band founded in 1989 in Umeå, Sweden by Dennis Lyxzén and his friends, Toft Stade, Jens Nordén and Henrik Jansson. Step Forward was one of the first hardcore punk bands in Sweden that held on to the ...
(1987–1991) and since 1990 with Backman in punk band The Vectors. The "AC" in the name is the regional code for the
Västerbotten
Västerbotten (), sometimes called West Bothnia or Westrobothnia, is a province (''landskap'') in northern Sweden, located by the Gulf of Bothnia. It borders the provinces of Ångermanland, Lapland and Norrbotten. The region is famous for Väs ...
province where Umeå is located.
The first show was at a squat on Parkgatan in Umeå on 5 May 2008.
In May 2008 someone posted a live song on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. It got on
Kerrang
''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...
's playlist and had over 14,000 hits the first week.
They performed at
Storsjöyran
Storsjöyran or just Yran (''literal meaning: The Great Lake Giddy Festival'') is an annual Swedish musical event going back to the early sixties.
Festival history
The festival was started in honor of the ancient can-do spirit of the people of ...
and Umeå Punkfest in 2008.
In 2009 they performed at
Way Out West Festival
Way Out West is a three-day music festival held in Gothenburg, Sweden, during August that plays host to a variety of popular music artists mainly from the rock, electronic and hip-hop genres. The main festival is complemented with the club con ...
and released the self-titled debut album on Lyxzén's label
Ny Våg.
In 2010 their European tour took them around their native Sweden, as well as Norway, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Austria, France, Italy, England and Wales. They also released the Umeå Hardcore 7-inch EP in Europe, a special 7-inch for Australia only and the debut album came out in America.
AC4 initially refused to do interviews with mainstream media and would only answer questions from fanzine writers who were under the age of 18.
To promote their Australian tour in April 2011, Dennis conducted a number of interviews with the local press, including Melbourne radio show Bullying The Jukebox.
While on tour in Australia a short documentary film about the band entitled "A few minutes with AC4" was filmed, along with a promotional video for the song "Won't Bow Down" from their debut album.
In May 2012 the band announced that Sandström had been replaced by Christoffer Röstlund Jonsson (DS-13) and that the recording of a second album had begun. The album ''Burn The World'' was released in March 2013 on
Ny Våg records and
Deathwish Inc.
Deathwish Inc. is an American independent record label conceived by Jacob Bannon of Converge and Tre McCarthy in 2000. Their first release was '' Deeper the Wound'', a split album between Converge and Japanese band Hellchild on April 23, 2001. D ...
The band is also performing at some upcoming festivals including
Groezrock
Groezrock was an annual music festival that took place in Meerhout, Belgium. It started as a small rock music, rock and pop music, pop festival with one stage and a few hundred people attending, but evolved into a large punk rock/hardcore punk fe ...
on a spring 2013 tour. A week before the tour the band announced that Nordén had suddenly left AC4, but is being replaced by their producer Fredrik Lyxzén.
AC4 disbanded 2013.
Members
*
Dennis Lyxzén
Sven Olov Dennis Lyxzén (born June 19, 1972) is a Swedish singer, best known as the lead vocalist for the influential hardcore punk band Refused, as well as the bands INVSN and Fake Names. He is also a former member of bands including AC4, S ...
– lead vocals
(2008–2013)
*
Karl Backman
Karl Backman, (born 27 October 1970, Umeå) is a Swedes, Swedish artist and musician.
Music
Backman became involved in Punk rock in 1980 and started his first punk band the Boredom Brothers in 1982 when he was squatting in Umeå.
He formed ...
– guitars, backing vocals
(2008–2013)
*
David Sandström
David Sandström (born 2 January 1975) is a Swedish musician best known as the drummer for the hardcore punk group Refused. After Refused first broke up in 1998, he and the other members worked on a project entitled TEXT and released one album. ...
– bass, backing vocals
(2008–2012)
*Christoffer Röstlund Jonsson – bass, backing vocals
(2012–2013)
*Jens Nordén – drums
(2008–2013)
*Fredrik Lyxzén – drums
(2013)
13-04-27 Groezrock AC4 01.jpg, Dennis Lyxzén
13-04-27 Groezrock AC4 03.jpg, Fredrik Lyxzén
13-04-27 Groezrock AC4 04.jpg, Christoffer Röstlund Jonsson
13-04-27 Groezrock AC4 02.jpg, Karl Backman
Discography
Albums
*''AC4''
**CD/LP
Ny Våg (Ny Våg No. 123), Sweden 2009
**LP Deranged Records (DY#161), Canada 2010
**CD
Shock Entertainment (CTX611CD), Australia 2011
*''
Burn the World
''Burn the World'' is the second album by the Swedish hardcore punk band AC4, released on Ny Våg (Ny Våg #133) in Sweden and Deathwish Inc. (DW145) in the United States, in March 2013.
The title track was written after guitarist Karl Backman's ...
''
**CD/LP Ny Våg records (Ny Våg No. 133), Sweden 2013
**LP
Deathwish Inc.
Deathwish Inc. is an American independent record label conceived by Jacob Bannon of Converge and Tre McCarthy in 2000. Their first release was '' Deeper the Wound'', a split album between Converge and Japanese band Hellchild on April 23, 2001. D ...
(DW145), USA 2013
EPs
*split 7-inch w/ Surprise Sex Attack
**7" Aniseed records (Aniseed 001) 2010
*''Umeå Hardcore''
**7" P-Trash records (p.trash62) 2010
Compilations
*''Umeå Vråljazz Giganter''
**CD/LP Ny Våg records (Ny Våg No. 120) 2010
Music videos
* "Curva del Diablo" (2013)
* "Burn the World" (2013)
References
External links
Official AC4 FacebookOfficial AC4 MyspaceRockfoto AC4Ny VågTriple R interview with Dennis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ac4
Swedish hardcore punk groups
Musical groups established in 2008
Deathwish Inc. artists
Musical groups from Umeå